Here’s a good little local story about Camarillo, Calif.-based battery startup Zinc Matrix Power, which has developed a silver-zinc battery technology with twice the run time of lithium-ion and a much safer operation and environmental profile. The technology apparently makes its debut at the Intel Developers Forum in San Francisco next week (Sept. 26 to 28), and manufacturer testing will be conducted next year. The company is financially backed by Intel Corp. and the U.S. Army, which obviously sees a number of military applications.

Timing couldn’t be better for this little company. Given the recent safety (fire) concerns over lithium-ion batteries, and the fact that Sony batteries used in laptops from Dell, Apple and Toshiba have been recalled by the hundreds of thousands, the search is on for a battery technology that is not only safer than lithium-ion but offers better performance as well.

UPDATE: Here’s the official release from Zinc Matrix Power from the Intel conference.

The Globe and Mail reports today that, according to sources, the federal Conservative government has plans to imposed mandatory vehicle-emission limits on auto manufacturers by 2010, after a voluntary deal put in place by the former Liberal government expires. The story says the Harper government will use California’s stringent regulations as a model, which on the surface is a good thing.

This is an encouraging step in the right direction, but what we don’t know yet is whether these emission restrictions will truly mirror those in California. Also, 2010 is still a far way off — presumably this shouldn’t be a shock to the auto makers if they are *voluntarily* working toward standards set by the Liberals. Why not target the new standards for, say, 2008?

The Conservatives appear quite worried that their lack of action on the environmental file (and Kyoto) could prevent them from getting a majority in the next election — or risk them a win altogether. It will be interesting to see whether tough talk now will lead to tough policy this fall.